Tuesday, 26 August 2014

Monday- Barred from Crazy Golf

Our stay in Le Buala in 2013 was one of the highlights of our holiday so we decided to return again this year. As we only confirmed our plans at the last minute they could only fit us in for one night. We were welcomed by Rudi and Karine and had a welcome drink before going to our room to change. We had booked the dinner with them again this year. Rudi and Karine are excellent cooks and the meal with wine is well worth the 28 euros. We sat outside and shared their table with a Belgium couple, Chris and Madeline. Chris was a mad keen cyclist who made my ride look like Sunday afternoon stroll. He had planned a week of cycling and it included climbing the Tourmalet 3 times and lots of the other cols in the area. His wife’s holiday seemed to consist of a week of support driving following him round in the car. His GPS was set to alert every 350 calories he used at which point he required his next feed. He showed us his Garmin GPS and his week’s supply of supplements, energy bars, recovery pills and honey cake he had brought with him. He even gave Lyn and I a couple of bars to try. I pointed out I managed to climb the Aubisque with a Quiche Lorraine and piece of bread from breakfast.
The meal was excellent, tomato tapenade as an aperitif, homemade pate for as starter, chicken with nutmeg for a main course and a lime bavarois with fruit compote to finish. We retired to bed well feed.
Breakfast the next day was excellent and the best we had so far in France. We left the car at the Le Buala and did a short 20 ride from the guide book we purchased last year. If offered some fantastic views of the Pyrenees and we climbed towards the village of Huite. The ride included a fast descent to the spa town of Bagneres de Bigorre . We visted it last year and decided to play another round of crazy golf. The course well maintained is set in a beautiful garden. The cashier watch us lock our bikes but when we came to pay said my cycling shoes we not allowed on the course! We returned to Antist via Lidl, to buy some lunch. We said good bye to Rudi and Karine and started the 3:30 minute drive to Sauveterre de Rouergue. The drive was uneventful. We stopped for a late Brexton lunch before we joined the motorway. Kate got a little confused on a new section of road that did not exist on the updated maps before Rodez . We arrived at the BB before 7:00. We walked into the Bastille village and had our evening meal in a pizzeria in the main square.